After the Sham Election: Recalibrating the Bridge to Peace in Myanmar

This briefing paper offers a snapshot of Thailand’s diplomatic, security, regional and economic engagements with the Myanmar military junta since the attempted coup over five years ago, drawing on a Defend Myanmar Democracy dataset.

The data, compiled between February 2021 to April 2025, captures over 270 meetings and events that involved Thailand. Of these, nearly 240 involved Thai government ministries, security agencies, and state-linked institutions. On 101 occasions, Thailand hosted junta representatives.

While the two primary open sources­ Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) and the military-controlled Ministry of Foreign Affairs Facebook page-are controlled by the illegal and illegitimate Myanmar military junta and serve as propaganda outlets, tracked overtime, they glean insight into the junta’s own narrative of external legitimacy. This narrative features Thailand as one of the key pillars of the junta’s false legitimacy-building strategy following the illegal coup attempt in 2021. These engagements also offer context to Thailand’s engagement with the Myanmar junta after its recent sham election.

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